Carousell is one of Singapore’s greatest successes, but did you know that they wasn’t meant to be a startup in the first place?

Here are some interesting facts about them that you never knew.

1. Carousell Was Born From Personal Needs

When Lucas, Marcus and Siu Rui first started, they had just returned from a year in Silicon Valley. Inspired by technology, they started looking for problems to solve – one of which was the decluttering their homes.

Selling on forums and classified sites were so troublesome the trio became lazy. And ironically, that transformed into Carousell version 1.

2. They Didn’t Mean To Startup

“It was just a product we liked,” Siu Rui shares, ‘Snap, List, Sell’ being originally only for their personal use. “We only incorporated Carousell Pte Ltd. on 2 January 2013 out of necessity.”

But it was then that the trio started developing it into a real company, venturing into partnerships, grants and funding.

“But the drive still originates back to the original mission of building a great product and to inspire people to start selling.”

3. They Weren’t That Worried About Competitors

When they couldn’t find a suitable app, the trio decided to build it.

“As part of the Snapchat and Instagram generation, we intuitively felt that this was the experience we wanted. We couldn’t get it in the market [so] why not build it?” Siu Rui says.

“It was less about Craigslist or SPH going to crush us, and more about here’s a need and there’s no product that solves it.”

4. Siu Rui, ‘Custodian of Values’

As CEO, Siu Rui views himself as the “Custodian of Values”. One of his main roles is to set the company’s direction and ensure everyone is aligned on the strategies and mission.

To ensure the overall success of the team, he has to ensure that executives are able to do what they do best. And so, one the main themes of his life is “Get out of the way!”

“You want to make sure they get the resources to do what they do, and we remove the obstacles for them.”

5. They Hobnobbed With The Zuck Himself

In April 2017, the team was 1 out of 15 startups selected for a round table with Mark Zuckerberg during the Facebook Developer Conference in San Jose, California.